Second Chance
by Musicfreak9864
Summary: based off Shinedown's song. New Sum. Carter looks back on the few months after her mother's death and the reason there is two beds in her room. While on Costa Luna Rosie gets a visitor and news of an arranged marriage. Will anyone get a second chance?
1. Chapter 1

AN: I own nothing except Christian.

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Carter was listening to her iPod as she worked on her homework. It was a month after the coronation and she was back in school. Rosie was in Costa Luna for awhile then she would return to Louisiana to finish the school year. So till then it was her and Ed and surprisingly Brooke, who apologized for what she did to help Chelsea and the years of helping Chelsea mess with Carter. She was currently working on an English paper her teacher asked the class to write. The teacher asked that they write about a time in their life that affected them the most. Most of the town knew about her mother's death but not of the event that happened a few months afterward.

Cater turned around and looked at the presently vacant twin bed on the other side of the room that Rosie occupied during her stay and would occupy again when she returned. Carter sighed turning back to her computer and went to type when her iPod began playing the next song. She knew the song by heart. It reminded her about the night she lost one of her best friends but knew she would see her again.

_My eyes are open wide  
and by the way, I made it  
through the day  
I watched the world outside  
By the way, I'm leaving out  
today_

_Well, I just saw Hailey's  
Comet TRUELY!  
Said why you always running  
in place?  
Even the man in the  
Moon disappears  
Somewhere in the  
Stratosphere_

_Tell my mother,  
Tell my father  
I've done the best I can  
To make them realize  
This is my life  
I hope they understand  
I'm not angry, I'm just saying...  
Sometimes goodbye  
is a second chance  
_

Carter remembered her father arguing with her, the dark haired, brown eyed teen upstairs in her father's room one night when they thought Carter was asleep.

**

"_Why can't I go?!" the girl yelled as Carter lay on her bed hearing the voices clearly through the house._

"_You know why!" Joe Mason yelled causing a twelve year old Carter to flinch at his tone._

"_No I don't dad, so why don't you clarify for me!" Carter knew the voice as her older sister Christian Mason._

"_Your mother just passed, don't you think your sister needs you?!" Joe yelled. Carter heard a stomp and whimpered as another tear fell._

"_I know that! But this is a great opportunity for me dad! Mom would want this for me!" Carter could hear her sister's voice crack as if she were about to cry._

"_What about your sister?!" Joe bellowed. _

**  
_Please don't cry  
One tear for me  
I'm not afraid of  
What I have to say  
This is my one and  
Only voice  
So listen close, it's  
Only for today_

_Well, I just saw Hailey's  
Comet shooting  
Said why you always running  
in place?  
Even the man in the  
Moon disappears  
somewhere in the  
Stratosphere  
_**

Carter remembered how she would stare at the stars every night since then and all the events that happened.

**  
_Tell my mother,  
Tell my father  
I've done the best I can  
To make them realize  
This is my life  
I hope they understand  
I'm not angry, I'm just saying...  
Sometimes goodbye  
is a second chance_

_Here's my chance  
This is my chance  
_**

_Carter remembered what her sister had said after Joe asked what about her._

"_Dad, Carter needs you more than she would ever need me right now." Carter was shocked and let the tears fall wishing she could drown them out but couldn't._

"_How can you say that?!" Joe exclaimed._

"_Dad, you've been on mission after missions, any open one, since mom passed, now spend time with her." Christian said as Carter understood her reasoning. He would take any mission he could._

"_I do spend time with her." Joe said a bit softer that Carter almost couldn't hear him._

"_It's a great college dad, this is my chance to do something in my life!" Christian exclaimed._

"_You do, do something great!" Joe exclaimed._

"_Protecting princesses is great, but that's what you do, I'll still work with them, just let me go to this college dad!" Christian yelled._

"_Your sister needs you!"_

"_And I'll always need her dad, like I'll always need you, but if you love something let it go and if it returns then it's yours, if you love me dad, let me go, I'll be back." Christian's voice was soft._

_Carter knew her sister would be back. But Joe didn't. He didn't listen to Christian and the argument ended badly. Christian stormed into the room packed as much as could into two duffel bags, her backpack and two suitcases not even noticing that she was awake.  
_**  
Tell my mother,  
Tell my father  
I've done the best I can  
To make them realize  
This is my life  
I hope they understand  
I'm not angry, I'm just saying...  
Sometimes goodbye  
is a second chance

Sometimes goodbye  
is a second chance  
sometimes goodbye  
is a second chance

**

_Carter woke up the morning after and found most to almost everything that was her sister's gone and a note sitting on the neatly made bed with her name written in Christian's handwriting. The letter was to Carter telling her that she was sorry for leaving her and that she needed to live life on her own for awhile. She had her high school diploma and was headed to college in London at Oxford University._

_Joe regretted that night and wished he could make it up to her but Christian had changed her numbers and asked the director to seal up everything about her. She was practically a ghost that worked with PPP. They also learned that their grandparents on their mother's side were paying for Christian's college and everything else._

**

Carter sniffled as she began typing her essay. She glanced over her shoulder once more and smiled. Carter understood why her sister needed to leave. She had to go find herself and that wasn't here in Louisiana. Carter wrote to her sister by sending the letters to her grandparents who then sent them to Christian she received very few responses but still got birthday cards and Christmas cards.

"Carter! Dinner!" Her dad called awhile later. She printed her paper and put it in her bag. She walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table grabbing a slice of pizza and placed it on her plate.

"You get your essay done?" Joe asked as Carter nodded. "What did you write about?"

Christian." Carter answered as Joe nodded looking down sadly as he took a bite out of his pizza.

"She was never angry dad, she cares about us still, she just needed to live her life, besides, I talked to the director, and Christian's been keeping tabs on us." Carter said placing a hand on her father's shoulder. He looked up and smiled at her.

"I just miss her."

"I do too." Carter says hugging her father.

Neither one noticed the figure outside their window watching them.

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Review if you like or if you want a sequal.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I own nothing except Christian and Mackenzie who is portrayed by Dallas Lovato**

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Christian Mason sighed as she got out of the PPP helicopter and walked towards the palace with her duffel bag hanging from her shoulder. She showed the guards at the front gates her driver's license and they raised an eyebrow.

"As in Joe and Carter Mason?" he asked as she nodded. "Go right on in Ms. Mason, I'll alert the queen for you."

"Thank you." Christian said flashing him a genuine smile. One her way past the gates she could hear the guard announce her arrival to the queen.

"You have a Ms. Mason on her way to see you your majesty."

Christian smiled. The Queen probably thought she was Carter now.

She walked to the study and was about to knock on the already cracked open door when she heard voices arguing.

"I don't want to marry some stranger!"

"I know Mija, but your grandmother had arranged this before she passed and your father and I never knew till now as well."

"But you know how I feel about Carter!"

Christian raised an eyebrow at this. She definitely had to ask her about it.

"You can tell her when she gets here the guards said she was on her way in."

Christian decided to make her presence known and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Christian pushed the door open and walked in.

"Oh, how may I help you?" Rosalinda "Rosie" Montoya Fioré asked as Christian smiled and nodded.

"Sorry for interrupting but I couldn't help but catch that…" She trailed off raking her brain for the right word. "debate, but I'm not the Mason you were expecting, I'm Carter's older sister Christian Mason." Christian said.

"Oh, how can I help you and how much of our…debate, did you hear?" Rosie asked.

"Just that last four or five sentences, but it's not my business, so I never heard it." Christian smiled.

"She's a smart girl." Sophia said as Christian gave her a smile in thanks.

"Wait, Cater never mentioned a sister." Rosie said as Christian nodded.

"You never did either." Christian said as Rosie and Sophia gasped.

"How do you know about her?" Sophia demanded as Christian reached into her back pocket and showed them her PPP badge.

"I guess it's a family business." Christian shrugged as the two calmed quite quickly.

"Do you know how she is?" Sophia asked as Christian nodded.

"Yeah, she's doing fine, wishes to come home, I'm here to make sure it's completely safe for her." Christian said putting her badge away and adjusting her bag's strap.

"Of course, she is welcome home anytime now that the threat is gone." Rosie said as Christian nodded.

"One other thing, I know it isn't my business, but she is my sister, how do you feel about her exactly?" Christian asked curiously as Rosie blushed. "I got my answer, the look in your eye when I mentioned her and the blush is enough." Rosie turned a shade darker.

"How is your family?" Sophia asked as Christian's smile faded.

"Uh…I haven't…um…I don't know…really, I haven't been home in four years, but Carter said in her letters that everything has been ok." Christian said.

"The same time my sister was placed in your care?" Rosie asked as Christian shook her head.

"Not really, I left about a month or two before your sister was in my care." Christian said as Sophia and Rosie nodded.

Christian hated bringing up the fact she hasn't been home in the past four years cause it reminded her how much she missed her family and made her hate herself for leaving the way she did. Nothing could stop the guilt as well. She left at a difficult time.

"When shall we expect her return?" Sophia asked.

"Uh, a week from today at the most, for a visit." Christian said. "But I always wondered, Mackenzie is her half sister, why would anyone think of her as a blockade to the throne or threat?" Christian asked Sophia who sighed.

"Rosie's father willed Costa Luna to her if anything were to happen to him or Rosie and Rosie's grandmother didn't like the fact that her son was taking in a child as well as a wife, she wished that he would marry a royal but his father felt that as long as his son was happy he shall marry whoever he pleases." Sophia explained.

Christian put the pieces together in her head. The argument Sophia and Rosie had about an arranged marriage was coming clearer and the reason why Princess Mackenzie was placed in her care to attend college with her at Oxford.

"So I take it that's why Rosie has an arranged marriage?" Christian asked as Sophia nodded. "I was kinda hoping when the Director said the grandmother was who I was protecting her from was a joke or something." Christian sighed shaking her head.

How could a mother do that to her son's daughter and stepdaughter.

"He always loved Mackenzie as his own, her own father left me and her wanting nothing to do with a child." Sophia sighed as Rosie gritted her teeth in anger.

"He should be glad he left Costa Luna."

"Well, I kinda left Mack back in London, we graduate from Oxford University in two months." Christian said readjusting her bag again.

"Please, stay the night, you must be tired." Rosie said as Christian shrugged.

"Might as well thank you." Christian said as Rosie nodded.

"I'll show you to your room myself." Rosie said as she led Christian out of the study and down the corridors.

"I never go to take a good look at this place when I took your sister out of here, it's beautiful, I am sorry about your grandmother's death though, I heard it was cancer." Christian said as Rosie nodded.

"Yes, it was, and thank you, we try to keep the palace neat." Rosie said as they reached the room and she pushed the doors open.

Christian whistled in amusement. "Wow, this place is nice."

"Thank you, my suite is right across from yours, make yourself at home." Rosie said pointing across the hall to the double doors.

"You guys really like double doors huh?" Christian joked as Rosie shrugged.

"I guess it was the thing back then."

"I guess so, thank you again." Christian said as Rosie smiled and walked out closing the door.

Christian looked around. The place was bigger than the suites she was used to at hotels. This place was probably two times bigger than those. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Mackenzie now. She never got a good look at the palace before taking her away from here to London to go to Oxford with her.

She treated Mackenzie so bad when she took her from here. She argued with her almost every night for two months because she was dealing with the stress of leaving her family and trying to get settled and get a hand on her classes. She took her anger out on Mackenzie cause she was acting like a princess. She was angry at herself more than she was the princess. Mackenzie was just acting the way she was and Christian acted like a total bitch.

Sighing Christian changed into a pair of girl boxers and a wife beater. It was the middle of the day but she was beat. PLus, she knew tomorrow was gonna be something new.

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**Review.**


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